The present invention relates to an instrument panel used for vehicles, and relates more specifically to an instrument panel that is used for meters mounted on a vehicle, wherein scales, numbers, characters and symbols are printed on a substrate in order to indicate a measured value through interaction with a pointer located forward of the substrate.
A related indicator plate of this type is generally used for a vehicular meter such as is shown in FIG. 4. For the vehicular meter in FIG. 4, an internal device 2 is located in a meter case 1, and an output shaft 2a of the internal device 2 is pivoted at an angle in accordance with a predetermined measured value, such as vehicle velocity or engine revolutions, to drive a pointer 3 that at its proximal end is securely fixed to the output shaft 2a. As a result, the pointer 3 points to indicators 4a (FIG. 5), constituting a scale or a series of characters, on the surface of a vehicular instrument panel (hereinafter also referred to simply as an instrument panel) that is located between the internal device 2 and the pointer 3, so as to visually present a measured value.
A light source 5 is provided for illumination at the back of the meter case 1, and light emitted by the light source 5 is guided along a light guide plate 6 and transmitted to the reverse face of the instrument panel 4. The light that is so conducted passes through the instrument panel to the obverse face, illuminating the transparent indicators 4a on the obverse face of the instrument panel 4, while a mask 7, superimposed on the front face of the instrument panel 4, covers those portions around the periphery of the instrument panel 4 for which no illumination is required. Across the front of the mask 7, a protective cover 8 is positioned so that it covers and protects the panel 4 and the pointer 3, and prevents dust from entering the area to its rear.
As is shown in a cross-sectional view in FIG. 6, the instrument panel 4 includes a transparent substrate 4b, and a transparent illumination color layer 4c having high lightness is positioned on the obverse surface of the transparent substrate 4b. Further, a shading layer 4d is disposed across the entire surface of the transparent display color layer 4c, excluding the portion having the shapes of the scales and the characters of the indicators 4a. For the thus arranged instrument panel 4, the transparent illumination color layer 4c and the shading layer 4d are provided by repeating the screen printing of individual colors.
The design of a related instrument panel 4 is determined for each vehicle type, and does not specifically reflect the tastes or needs of individual drivers. On the other hand, there has recently been noted a demand for a variety of the instrument panel 4 designs intended to enhance the product value of vehicles. However, since as is described above, screen printing is employed for instrument panels 4, an extended setup time is required, owing primarily to the need to exchange printing plates and to replace one ink with another, and since printing is performed for each color, individually, the printing time is also extended. Thus, it is difficult to cope with the production of small quantities of a variety of instrument panel 4 types.